OCC Announces Record Year - For Options, Futures, And Stock Loan Clearing

The Options Clearing Corporation (OCC) announced today that total OCC volume in December reached 344,206,175 contracts, a 16% increase over the December 2009 volume of 296,703,081.

OCC ended the year with cleared contract volume reaching 3,925,686,805, an 8% increase over the 2009 volume of 3,625,021,053. 2010 was the busiest year in OCC’s history as a result of the eighth consecutive year of record options trading, futures volume that more than doubled, and significant growth in securities lending activity.

Options: Exchange-listed options trading in December increased 16% compared to December 2009 with 341,207,420 contracts. Equity options volume was up 17% from the previous December and set a record daily volume of 29,352,698 contracts on December 16th, 4% higher than the previous record set in May 2010. Index options volume declined 2% from the previous December with 20,741,853 contracts. Total options volume for 2010 came in at 3,899,068,670 contracts, an 8% increase over 2009’s annual volume of 3,612,637,118.

Futures: Futures cleared by OCC finished the year with 2,998,755 contracts in December, representing a 74% increase over December 2009 volume of 1,719,560. OCC averaged 105,628 futures contracts per day in 2010, more than double that of 2009. 2010 brought OCC futures clearing to its highest level with an annual total of 26,618,135.

Securities Lending: OCC's stock loan program, including OTC and AQS, saw a 51% increase in new loan activity over December 2009 with 69,429 new loan transactions in December. Total securities lending activity in 2010 was up 64% from 2009 with 656,749 new loan transactions. OCC’s stock loan program ended the year with an average daily notional value of $12,692,188,125.